


Bunkers Can Be A Dangerous Place

by Anonymous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Dean Winchester is Protective of Castiel, Dean gutting a creature to save Cas, Gen, Guilty Mary Winchester, Guilty Sam Winchester, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 19:59:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15979415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Mary catches a dog-like creature she's never encountered before, she brings it back to the bunker to see if Cas can identify it.It's just not a good time, since the angel is currently the height of Dean's hand, especially since the creature apparently likes Cas's smell and wants to know if he tastes just as good.When Sam lets Mary persuade him into keeping the creature for identification instead of shooting it like he promised Dean, it puts Cas in mortal danger and Dean has only seconds to act to save the angel.





	Bunkers Can Be A Dangerous Place

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt at the SPN kink meme.

“What the hell is that?”

Mary shrugged as she stared at the cage Sam had carried downstairs for her, and then set on the war room table. “No idea. But it was eating pets and I figured I’d bring it here before it moved onto kids.”

Dean stared at the creature. It was the size of a spaniel, but with huge jaws and curved in teeth that it was now baring at them.

“Mom, why did you bring it here? Why didn’t you just kill it?”

Mary looked at him like he was being a little slow today. “Have you ever seen anything like it? What if we run into one again? Don’t you think we should at least study it before we shoot it? Assuming we can kill it by shooting it. And I was thinking that...maybe Cas could have a look at it.”

Dean had a gun concealed under the table, and he was willing to find out then and there if a bullet would do the job. But that was when Cas piped up, “Your mother’s right.”

Dean glanced at the angel perched, literally, on his shoulder. Cas had one hand fisted in Dean’s collar, and was peering curiously at the cage.

“No,” Dean said. “She’s not.” He heard the huff of disapproval from Mary. “Mom, why didn’t you just take a photo of this thing on your phone and send it to us?”

Mary looked somewhat sheepish, and then reached into her pocket and pulled out half an IPhone. “Yeah, I thought of that. Let’s just say it doesn’t like getting its picture taken.”

Unbelievable. They had a miniature angel in the house and their mom brought something that looked like a nightmare pet home with her.

He felt something catch on his shirt sleeve and swore when he looked down to see Cas was clambering down his arm. Before he could stop him, Cas had taken a leap and landed on the tabletop, way too close to the monster mutt in the cage for Dean’s liking.

“Cas-” he started, just as Mary said, “Do you recognise it?” And Sam was reaching out, warning, “Maybe not too close, Cas,” and then the thing was lurching forward.

The whole damn cage moved with it, and maybe there was a criss cross of metal between those jaws and the small angel, but the beast was acting like it didn’t know or didn’t care, and Cas jumped back.

But he was too close to the edge of the table, and then he was falling.

Dean threw himself down, hands cupped, and Cas landed in his palms with a _womph_ as the air was knocked out of him.

Dean pulled Cas in to his chest, aware he was cupping the angel, but he was shaking and Cas was shaking, and Sam had the handle of the cage in his hand, tugging it back from them both.

Mary looked torn between shame and shock, and Dean glared at her.

“And this is why you shouldn’t have brought that here. Cas, you okay?”

The angel stood up, awkwardly. “Yes. I...just wasn’t expecting that.”

No shit. And then like her new pet hadn’t just tried to snack on their angel, Mary said, “So, Cas, any ideas on what it is?”

It took a lot to make Dean speechless. And for a few moments he actually couldn’t find the words to fit what was going through his head. At least not without being really rude to their mom.

So he looked at Sam and then jerked his head towards the cage. “Take that out and see if it’s bulletproof. We’re turning in.”

He ignored Mary’s protests, and stormed off to his room. He kicked the door shut behind him, and carefully set Cas down on one of the pillows.

“You sure you’re okay?”

Cas sat down, resting his arms on his knees. “Yes. Thanks to you.”

“I don’t know what the hell she was thinking, bringing that fucker in here.”

“It was a sound decision,” Cas said. “I might have recognised it. I don't, unfortunately.”

Dean gave him a sharp look. “Cas, I don’t care if you could pick it out of a line up. She should have known better. If that thing hadn’t been in a cage, you’d be in its belly right now.”

The angel shuddered, and Dean wanted to kick himself.

“Not that I’d have left that happen.”

Cas smiled at him. “Of course not.”

Dean settled down next to him, and reached over to turn off the lights. He would have to sleep dressed tonight - no way he was leaving Cas alone to go get changed until Sam confirmed he’d put that thing down and buried it.

And tomorrow, when he was calmer, he’d have a talk with his mom. About boundaries and putting their family at risk.

++

“You’re not actually going to shoot it,” Mary said.

Sam had the cage in one hand, held far enough away to avoid the thing’s claws that were disconcertingly long. “Yeah, mom, I am. Bringing it here, okay, not a good idea. Not with Cas that size.”

“Okay, I get that, but nothing happened, Sam. It was in the cage, Cas was perfectly safe.”

Sam paused to give her a stunned look. “He could have really got hurt if Dean hadn’t caught him, or if he’d been any closer to that cage. Look, we’ve never seen one of these things before. Odds are we never will again, so there’s no reason to take a chance on keeping it around.”

He started to open the bunker door, but Mary pushed it shut again. “Mom.”

“Sam. Look, I know we don't mention them around here, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing, but before we knew better, you really wanted to uphold the whole legacy thing, didn’t you? Learning, not just putting things down. And this is a perfect opportunity. Just because we’ve never seen one of these before, it doesn’t mean we won’t ever again.”

Sam looked down at the creature. She had a point. There were lots of creatures that only appeared at set cycles, and were rare, but still capable of killing people. He didn’t want to be facing one twenty years from now, presuming he was still alive and hunting then, only to regret it when he didn’t know something he needed to because he’d let Dean’s suffocating over-protectiveness make him act hastily.

“It stays in the cage,” he said.

Mary nodded. “Absolutely.”

“And we put it in the dungeon.”

“Goes without saying.”

“And Dean doesn’t know I didn’t shoot it. And I will be putting it down by the end of the week.”

Mary patted his shoulder. “I’ll help you bury it.”

Sam crept back downstairs, and paused to press an ear to Dean’s door. He heard snoring, so Dean was asleep and Cas was probably meditating.

He snuck down to the first dungeon, and set the cage down in the centre of the room.

The creature glared at him, and Sam couldn’t help a shiver. It looked like the family dog that had been buried in Pet Sematary and then come back some twisted version of itself that was out for blood.

Yeah, he was starting to think twice about the wisdom of this, but Mary did have a point.

He just had to hope that Dean didn’t find out about this, because that would not be good.

Sam closed the dungeon door over behind him and then turned in.

 

**

It was just after midnight when it finally gnawed a hole big enough in the cage to get through. The twisted wires still snagged and tore at its fur, but it didn't care about that.

There was a scent, a glorious smell, and it was hungry. Whatever that small creature was, the one with the human, it wanted it.

It wanted it now.

It clambered over the metal structure that stood between it and the door, and then used its claws to climb up the wood until it reached the grill.

That took less time than the cage, and soon the wood cracked and gave way under its teeth.

It dropped down lightly on the other side, and sniffed at the air. The humans were still here, but if it was careful, it could have that small delicious smelling treat before they could stop it.

And if they got in its way...well, humans weren’t to its taste, but it could stomach a bite or two if necessary.

It padded down the hall, following its nose.

++

Cas didn’t sleep, not even under the effects of the spell that had shrunk him, but he did meditate. It helped him rest and it helped restore his Grace, and it was also beneficial in helping him settle himself.

He still had bad days, and days that could simply be categorised as ‘not awful’, days on which nothing helped, but they were fewer and further between of late, and Cas was determined not to slip back into the state he’d been in after Rowena had attacked him, and again after his close call with Ramiel.

It helped knowing Sam and Dean were close, and that he could talk to them. They were the ones who’d explained to him about depression, and anxiety and PTSD, and how he needed to talk these things out with them, or even write his feelings down if he didn’t feel like a discussion.

And that had also helped. Cas still marvelled at his humans, so battle worn and yet not hardened against the world, still so capable of caring and of love.

He glanced briefly at Dean before sitting up and stretching. Dean was even more worried about him since he’d been shrunk, and was even more protective, which Cas appreciated though it was surely unnecessary.

The bunker might now be a vastly different place due to his new size, but it was still the safest location on Earth especially with his family here.

Nothing was going to happen to him with Dean right there, and Sam close by.

And that was when he heard it.

++

Dean heard Cas scream his name, once, and then something hit the bed hard and that shook Dean all the way awake.

He turned on the bedside lamp and then he was the one screaming for Cas.

That thing, that creature that Mary had brought into their home, that Sam _was supposed to have shot_ , was out, and it was on the bed, and he just had time to see it’s massive maw close over the angel before Cas was gone.

It swallowed once, and that was it.

Then it looked at Dean and licked its muzzle, and there was something so cocky and satisfied on its face that he wanted to shoot it.

So he did. He drove his knee into its shoulder, and knocked it onto its side.

Using his knee again, he pinned it there, and then grabbed his gun, and put the barrel to its head and fired.

That solved the problem of how to kill it, at least. Bullets worked just fine. But Cas!

Dean grabbed his knife and yanked the creature into the middle of the bed. Those jaws were huge. Cas wasn’t and Dean had seen it only swallow him, not shred him with those nightmare fangs.

He hesitated, not knowing how this thing's internal organs were arranged, but knowing he had to do it and do it now.

He slipped the tip of the knife to just under its chin, and drew the blade down, as fast as he dared, making an reasonably shallow incision.

Sam and Mary were at his bedroom door a moment later, both with guns drawn, yelling his name.

“Cas,” he panted at them. “It ate Cas, it fucking ate him!”

He didn’t know what they did then, all his attention focused on what he was doing. The thing fucking stank and it didn’t get any better when he dropped his knife and stuck his fingers in the incision he’d made and pulled.

Muscle and flesh resisted but then tore and Dean gagged as he saw what had to be the purplish sack of its stomach.

He grabbed his knife back up and carefully cut the connecting tissue until he could lift the whole soggy mess out and put it on the bed.

Mary was touching him then, her hand on his shoulder. “Dean, Dean, I’m sorry, I…”

He shrugged her off, he didn’t have time for that. And there was still a chance.

He didn’t dare use the knife here, instead tearing apart the stomach, gagging again at the foul liquid that spilled out, stinging, onto his hands.

But there...holy fucking shit, there Cas was. He slid out in a mess of slick, covered in it, and Dean frantically scooped him up and ran barging past his mother and his brother.

The lights in the bathroom came on automatically and Dean held Cas in one hand as he put the plug in the hand basin and turned on the tap.

The water started to pool and Dean carefully lowered Cas into it and used his finger tip to wipe the gunk away from Cas’s face.

“C’mon, Cas, please. I know you didn’t suffocate in there, dude. Come on!”

And then Cas gasped and retched, and then he was looking up at Dean like he'd just hung the moon for him.

“Dean,” he said, hoarsely, and then he started to shiver in Dean’s hands.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Dean said, and he was laughing, and Cas seemed a little confused as to why, but Dean was sure he’d figure it out.

++

They didn’t have any spare clothes for a doll sized Cas, so he ended up carefully wrapped in a small hand towel while his own clothes dried off over a heater.

He still looked like shit, but he’d just been eaten alive, so Dean wasn’t too surprised. And he wasn’t doing that great himself. 

Waking up to find Cas getting pounced on by that thing was a nightmare he wouldn’t forget anytime soon. And that brought him to the fact that he’d trusted Sam to get rid of it.

But, knowing the threat it posed to Cas, he’d still let Mary talk him around.

It was the shit with the Letters all over again.

Neither Sam or Mary had been able to look Cas in the eyes too much once Dean had brought him back to his room. 

Fortunately, by then, the corpse was gone, and the sheets changed, and somebody had sprayed some cheap ass air freshener which didn’t quite mask the stink of dead creature, but it was better than nothing.

Sam was the one to try and apologise first, but Dean had cut him off. “That thing looked pretty alive for something you shot, Sam. Wanna tell me how that is?”

Sam glared at him, but then looked away. “Yeah, I think you know how that is, Dean. Look, Cas I…”

Dean stepped between them, where he’d put Cas on the bed, and where Sam was standing.

“No way. Save it for tomorrow. And work out how the hell you’re going to make this up to him.”

He threw both him and Mary out, then, and shut the door again. And this time, he locked it, which he should have done the first time except he’d trusted his brother to do the smart thing.

Damn it.

So now it was just him and Cas.

He reached out to carefully stroke Cas’s back, something the angel didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he subtly - or not so subtly - pushed back into Dean’s touch, as if he needed it, and Dean truly didn’t mind.

It took a couple of days for Cas to settle completely, and he spent a lot of that time in close contact with Dean, as if just needing that extra reassurance he was okay, and Dean was there.

To be honest, Dean needed it too. That one had been too damn close, and the reminder that Cas had survived it was as welcome as it was needed.

Sam and Mary had both come and spoke to Cas separately, and Cas was more gracious than Dean felt either one of them deserved, especially Mary since this was the second damn time she’d put Cas in a position where he got hurt.

Dean had made it clear, without having to put it in so many words, that it was never happening again, and Mary’s face showed she got the message.

But Cas had never been one to hold grudges, as least not for things done against him, and though the bunker was tense for a few days the atmosphere, it did go back to normal.

It helped that both Sam and Mary stuck close to Cas, even when whatever had shrunk him wore off and he returned to normal size.

Dean figured he and the angel weren’t the only ones to get the fright of their lives, and he figured if Cas was okay with them again, then he could be too.

As long as it never happened again.


End file.
